A frustrated female family member sent this e-mail out to the rest of the females in the family yesterday. I know she was looking for sympathy and I did sympathize as soon as I stopped shaking my head and chuckling. The Big Guy began to laugh as soon as I got to the sentence mentioning the "detergent bottle". He could see where this was leading.

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So, in her own words, here is a guest blog (She's asked to remain anonymous.):

I just don't get it...I swear, men were born with a vital part of their brain's short circuiting the vast majority of the time. They say their thinking is based in logic, however, they are clearly LACKING the ability to reason.

My wonderful, always thinking LOGICAL, male version of the species thought it would be a wonderful idea to recycle. Recycling is good for the planet - reduce, reuse, recycle. For him, recycling is reusing an object when its original use is no longer useful.

So, in his ultimate LOGICAL thought pattern, he filled an empty laundry detergent jug with used motor oil (which was, of course, to be disposed of properly at a later date). Apparently, logical thought patterns also follow along the lines of the perpetual procrastinator. My ingenious husband loves projects. He rarely loves to finish them though, and disposing of oil from oil changes apparently falls across the line of finishing a project. So my ingenious and LOGICAL male variety of the species fills the laundry jug with oil and places it outside in the SAME location where my real and actual laundry detergent is often put when we put it down to get in the house on our way home from a shopping trip and is often forgotten. (By the way, he usually does the shopping as well.)

Anyway, I go into the basement to do a load of laundry and, lo and behold, there is NO laundry detergent. My RATIONAL side reasons that he just went to Walmart this week and I bet he forgot to bring in the detergent. Sure enough, there is a whole bottle sitting outside!

I take the bottle down into the basement and start laundry, however, the measuring cap is missing. So I used an opaque cap left from our previous bottle and fill it up. With the opaque cap in use, color is hard to determine. My nose is stuffy due to a cold so I can't smell it, either. Our basement lighting is rather dingy with no light fixture over the laundry area (another one of those yet to be completed projects), so color is really hard to determine UNTIL I pour the capful of masquerading laundry detergent INTO my washer. Turns out it isn't really laundry detergent!

In a phone call to my LOGICAL male version of the species, he wants to know how I didn't notice it wasn't laundry detergent ! He wanted to know how come I didn't notice the smell, color, consistency etc. My list went something like this: It was labeled laundry detergent (There were no markings on the outside of the bottle to signify it wasn't.) It was a thick liquid much like laundry detergent. In dim lighting with an opaque lid, the color wasn't horribly off. I don't sniff every bottle to ensure contents are what is said on the outside of the bottle. It was in the same place laundry detergent is often stored. WHY would I think it is anything but laundry detergent?

I did notice it didn't behave in water the way laundry detergent is supposed to! But in that 10 second time frame of opening and pouring, nothing jumped out at me until it hit the water.

My LOGICAL side said, he poured used motor oil into a laundry detergent bottle with an opening the size of a two liter bottle without dripping!!! My husband can't even manage to pour a glass of milk into a wide mouth glass without spilling. My LOGICAL male version of the species believes if its stuck, jammed, sticking or blocked, FORCING is the way to go. If it slips, slides, or wiggles when it shouldn't, jamming is the way to go, actually poured a liquid into a container without spilling, dripping or making any evidence of a mess!?!

Anyway, anyone have any ideas on how to remove motor oil from a washing machine. By the way, we are OUT of laundry detergent!

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Sure, it was funny! It wasn't MY washing machine or MY husband !

Incidentally, after doing a number of run-throughs with Lestoil, Dawn and regular laundry detergent, she has gotten the machine cleaned out and has successfully run a few loads of laundry without further incidence.

MORAL OF THIS STORY: Always sniff your detergent before pouring. You just never know.